Think Before You Sneeze
by myfanficsrnotthatgood
Summary: After a terrible accident with the Elements of Harmony, Twilight blames herself for her friends' near death. She goes to live in a cave deep in the Everfree Forest. But soon Princess Celestia informs her of a new villian that wants to take over Equestria. Now she must reunite with her friends in order to save her land.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"You will _not_ get away with this, Rocky Stallion!" yelled Twilight against the roaring wind. "You don't possess the magic of friendship whatsoever! You, who has not known any kind of friendship, will be destroyed by the Elements!"

Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight rose up into the Element formation.

"Nervousciting!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "Hang onto your Elements!"

Twilight concentrated. Really hard. It always felt good to be defending Equestria against villians, but, as any unicorn knows, any kind of powerful magic requires alot of strength. Applejack had once admited that even _she _had felt a little woozy after they defeated Discord.

She could feel the Elements Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty all working together to form her Elelment, Magic. What was supposed to happen next was the magic contained in Twilight's Element was to be directed in Rocky Stallion's direction. But while her Element's Magic was getting stronger, Twilight felt a huge sneeze coming on.

"Guys, move out of the way!" She screamed over the humming noises. But it was too late. She sneezed, and the lack of concentration made the magic backfire, and the force that was supposed to hit Rocky Stallion hit the Elements behind her. Suddenly, everything went dark.

Twilight turned around slowly. All of her friends were lying on the ground, passed out.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Hahaha! Saved by the sneeze!" Rocky Stallion roared. He charged into the forest. But Twilight wasn't worried about that. She ran over to her unconcious friends. "Spike, get Princess Celestia!"

The baby dragon ran to the Golden Oak Library to send a letter.

Fluttershy tried to raise herself up onto her front legs but fell right back down again. "Here," Twilight extented her hoof and the pegasus took it.

"Twilight? Wha-? What _happened?_"

"We were trying to defeat Rocky Stallion, but I kinda sneezed in the middle of the formation."

"Um, who's Rocky Stallion?"

Twilight was concerned. How much did she not remember? Fluttershy caught a glimpse of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. "Oh my gosh!"

"The same thing that happened to you." Twilight said, knowing what she was going to ask. Suddenly, Fluttershy's Element caught on fire. Twilight ripped if off of her neck and slammed it on the ground. It went out when it hit the dirt. Princess Celestia flew in, followed by Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor, who was in a hot air balloon.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Shining Armor ran over. "We could hear that blast from Canterlot!"

"_ART THOU SHALL TELL US WHAT HAS HAPPENED!"_ Princess Luna roared. "Ahem, uh, I mean, what happened?"

"We used the Elements of Harmony to try to defeat Rocky Stallion, but I sneezed in the middle of it, and the magic backfired and hit them instead..." Much to her surprise, a tear rolled down her cheek.

Fluttershy walked over to Rainbow Dash and tapped her with her hoof. "Dashie, wake up..." she did the same with the rest of them, and then turned to Princess Celestia. "Um, Princess, they're not waking up..."

"I know, my dear." She walked over to everypony, and with each one she examined, she got a more releived look on her face. She turned to the rest of them and said, "They're going to be fine. Maybe a few night's stay at the hospital, and they should be good as new."

But it turned out to be longer. They were in the hospital for a whole three weeks, and then got transported to the Filly Delphia hospital - and still hadn't woken up.

Twilight sat in the dark one night. If she could've held that sneeze in for three more seconds, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't be surprised if her friends _hated_ her, especially Fluttershy. Speaking of Fluttershy, while she was pondering this, somepony knocked. Twilight flopped off of her sack of pillows and opened the door.

"Oh, hi..." Fluttershy was probably there to tell Twilight that she hated her. "Just get this over with."

"Get what over with? I have great news!"

"What is it?"

"They're out of thr hospital! They should be arriving on the Friendship express any minute now! Come on!"

Twilight and Fluttershy raced down to the train station as fast as they could. When they arrived, they could see the Friendship Express a mile away, picking up speed.

"Are you sure they were coming tonight? I mean, who wants to come home from the hospital to a dark town?"

"I told the Filly Delphia nurses that we would be here."  
"Okay."

The Friendship Express was pulling up to the station. Four people got off. Applejack, who looked perfectly normal, exept for the fact that she didn't have her hat on, Rarity, whose mane looked better than ever, Rainbow Dash, who was walking and not flying, and Pinkie Pie, who looked pretty happy.

Fluttershy immediately ran up to greet them, but Twilight had second thoughts. What if they really _did _hate her? She stayed a little bit behind. When everypony started hugging, she layed on the ground, head in hooves. The scene of which it all happened played through her head again, and she cringed. She could hear Rainbow Dash's voice, whispering, and then Fluttershy's voice. "Oh, she's, uh, been like this for a while. She blames herself for what happened to you guys..." Then the clicking of hooves coming her way.

"You okay, sugarcube?" Twilight looked up into Applejack's worried face. "You seem a bit... sad, that's all."

"Sad? Ooooh! I could throw you a party!" Pinkie Pie offered. "With cake?"

"What about a dress?" Rarity asked. "I'll use my finest silk!"

"I'll make the weather whatever you want it too be!" Butted in Rainbow Dash.

"You - you guys don't - don't hate me?" Twilight said.

Her friend's expressions were a mixture of shock and disbelief.

"Why in Equestria would ya think we hate you?" Applejack asked.

"Well, because..." She looked at their anxious faces. "Because you all almost died because of me!" Twilight bursted out crying and put her head in her hooves once more.

Rainbow Dash lowered her head to Twilight's level. "But we didn't. C'mon, let's go home." She took Twilight's hoof and walked out of the station, followed by the rest of them and an annoyed train station worker, who probably had been waiting forever to lock up.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Twilight woke up to the sound of eggs sizzling in a pan. "Wha - ?" Her first though was that somepony broke into her house. But then she remembered - she was at Sweet Apple Acres, because after they had left the train station, they had decided to have a sleepover in the barn. Evidentally, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had been worried sick about their sisters, and Scootaloo was worried sick about Rainbow Dash. Dashie had blushed a little when Granny Smith told her this. But, right now, they were all having a Cutie Mark Crusaders sleepover at Scootaloo's house, so the mane six were alone to have a "Friendship Breakfast" ( as Granny Smith had called it ).

Twilight stretched and walked over to the back of the barn, where an oven and a huge table had been set up. A chair was open at the end of the table, so she sat down, and Rarity screamed. Everypony head shot in her direction. "Hehe... I mean, _ahh..._" She trotted over to her bag, pulled out a brush, walked back over, and started brushing Twilight's mane.

"Sorry, darling, but I just can't help myself!" Everypony laughed, even Twilight. Then Rarity put her hair up in a sort of twist-like thing and sat back down. After a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and ham (Fluttershy refused to eat the bacon or the ham, and cringed when the others took a bite), Pinkie Pie said, "How about we have the first anniversary of our first sleepover? Which requires a PARTY!"

Everypony thought this was a good idea, so they cleaned up and headed over to Pinkie Pie's apartment. But just as they were about to turn the corner, Twilight remembered something. "No, wait-" Fluttershy must have realized the same thing Twilight realized, because she reached out her hoof to stop Pinkie, but it was too late. She turned the corner - and came face-to-face with a grave. "We will always remember Gummy the Aligator." is what it read. It took Pinkie a few seconds to process what that meant. Her eyes opened wide, and then her mane straightened. "Wha- what?"

"It happened while you were away." Twilight said. "He got really sick - Fluttershy did everything she could, and he seemed to be getting alot better, but then... he just - "

Pinkie had sunk to the ground. "Died," she said, staring off into the distance. "Go ahead, say it..."

"Well, died."

"I'm sorry, Pinkie, I should've done more for him."

"No, it's okay. The vet said he was close to dying anyway."

"I know what'll cheer you up!" said Fluttershy. "A party!" They all headed upstairs, Pinkie following far behind, dragging her feet.

"Pinkie, my dear, so glad to have you back!" Mrs. Cup Cake said. Paddy Cake and Pound Cake giggled and walked up to her.

"You've gotten so big..." said Pinkie, but her heart clearly wasn't in it.

Mrs. Cup Cake mouthed to the rest of the ponies, "_Did she find out?_"

They nodded their head.

"C'mon, let's go have some fun," Rainbow Dash dragged Pinkie upstairs. "And make sure to hide the turnips, flour, lint, and rocks..."

"I still don't get that."

"You will... one day."

LITERALLY HALF-AN-HOUR LATER

The apartment was completely wrecked, Pinkie's mane was normal again, and she was bouncing around like a crazy person while the others were pooped (haha "poop"ed).

"Okay, who wants some apple pie?" Applejack asked. "It's fresh from this morning when Twilight was sleeping..."

"Yeah!" Everypony said in unison.

While they were eating, a fillies' voices came from downstairs. "Where are they?!"

"Upstairs." Mrs. Cup Cake said.

Then came the loud clomping of hooves.

"Who could that be?" asked Twilight.

"Rarity!"

"Applejack!"

"Rainbow Dash!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom hugged their sisters, while Scootaloo charged at Rainbow Dash and gave her an explosive hug.

"Whoa, Scootaloo! Watch the awesomeness!"

"Rainbow Dash, I learned how to fly!"  
"Really?

"Yeah, see?"

Scootaloo flapped her wings, reached about one foot in the air, stayed up for about two seconds, and then fell.

"Look, Rarity!" Sweetie Belle nudged her sister. "Watch this!"

She stared intently at a paper plate.

"Are you trying to imitate Fluttershy, Sweetie?" asked Rarity.

Fluttershy gave her a dirty look.

But Sweetie Belle wasn't listening. She strained, and the paper plate started to levitate off of the pile. It flew across the room, and landed in front of Rarity.

Rarity wore a look of disbelief. She stared at her sister for like, half a minute. Then she finnaly got out, "Since when were you able to us magic, little sis?"

"About a week ago..."

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there to see it..."

"Why weren't you, anyway?"

"Well, ya see... there was an accident with the Elements."

"What happened?"

"Uh, we were in the middle of the arrangement and - "

Suddenly, Twilight ran from the room.

"No, Twilight, I didn't mean - " Rarity chased after her.

Rarity found her in the back of Sugarcube Corner, with rings around her eyes like she had been crying.

"Did you tell her?" Twilight asked when Rarity walked up to her.

"No. I went to look for you."

"Why? I made you miss out on your little sister's first magic. I let Applejack miss out on _her_ little sister getting her cutie mark. And I'm pretty sure Rainbow Dash wanted to be the one to teach Scootaloo how to fly."

"Apple Bloom got her cutie mark?"

"Yeah. It's a paintbrush with an art pallete in the background."

"Listen, no matter what you did, you'll still be our friend."

"Not if your dead, I won't."

"But we're not. You're spending all your time nowadays thinking about what would have happened if you accidentally _did_ kill us, but the thing is, you _didn't_ kill us. So that's a complete waste of time."

"Who killed who now?" Apple Bloom looked like she had just heard the saddest story of her life.

"Um, nothing." Everyone from the party had come downstairs.

Twilight turned to Applejack. "I'm sorry,"

"Sorry for what?"

"For making you miss out on something big." She looked at Apple Bloom when she said this.

"Oh, yeah! I forgot I was wearing this!" Apple Bloom pulled back her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape to reveal a shining cutie mark.

Applejack looked on the verge of tears. "I'm so happy for ya', sis!"

Everypony started questioning her at once, even Rarity.

"Whendya get it?"

"How did you get it?

"What did you have to do?"

"Well," Began Apple Bloom. "I was wrestling a bear, and - "

"The _real_ story, please." Said Sweetie Belle.

"Fine. Me and the other Crusaders were crusading for our cutie marks one day, and we were rudely interupted by Mayor Mare, who wanted us to make sure nopony sabotaged the paintings for the monthly art contest. It seemed like a pretty big job, so we took it. Turns out, somepony did sabotage one of the paintings, by spilling water all over it. So I decided -"

"We forced you -" Said Scootaloo.

"- to re-do the painting for him. So I did, and it looked better than the one he did before I fixed it up. Turns out, he won. When they called out his name for the winner, this little thang appeared."

"Awww..." Applejack cooed. "I'm so lucky to have you as a little sis."

"So, what all this about the accidentally-almost-killing issue?" Apple Bloom asked.

Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack all exchanged nervous glances.

"Yea, we wanna know more!" The CMC cheered.

"Um, well, a couple of people almost killed a bunch of Fluttershy's chickens with fireworks."

"Oh. But we heard something about Twilight almost killing 'us'."

"Let me put this the most simplest way possible..." Fluttershy gestured for the girls to come over. They huddled in a sort of team-meeting like way, and Fluttershy whispered something to them. It took up a whole five minutes, but she finally got the news through to them.

"But Twilight feels really bad about it, so don't rub it in her face." Fluttershy finished.

"If it makes her feel any better, we agreed to put off the Sweetie Belle's magic/Apple Bloom's cutie mark/Scootaloo's learning how to fly party until after ya'll came back." Apple Bloom said. "So they don't miss _too_ much."

"Hey, where is Twilight anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Uhhh..." They looked around. "She was here when I finished the story..."

"She probably ran off when she heard Apple Bloom ask that question."

"I'm sorry! I was curious!"

_*Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo went off to look for Twilight. Hours passed. Then days. Then weeks. Then months. Until finally it had been three years since anypony had seen Twilight Sparkle. Meanwhile, Twilight had lived in the depths of the Everfree Forest, in an evacuated cave of a bear, hiding from everypony. She had lived her life, she had become Princess, she had finished her studies. And anyway, it's not like anypony would miss her... little did she know that search parties had become an every day tradition in Ponyville, Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire. Then finally, on the fourth year, everypony gave up. They all said it was most likely she was dead. So they put a grave that read "Twilight Sparkle" right next to Gummy's. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had moved back to Cloudsdale, Pinkie Pie's mane had become permanentely straight, no amount of parties could fix that. Rarity's designs were not top-ten anymore, her heart wasn't in it nearly as much. Applejack sometimes would pick all of the apples in Sweet Apple Acres in one day, because she had nothing better to do. As for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they never had meetings anymore. With only two members now, they couldn't think of anything that would earn then their cutie marks, so they just decided to quit. Twilight had no idea that her grieving had caused so much pain in other people's lives - that is, until she was paid a little visit...*_


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Twilight was sitting alone in her cave one day, when she heard a knock on the stone. Her instinct told her to run further into the cave, so she did. When she turned the corner to her "room" (which was a small section of the cave that was seperated from the rest of the cave by a bedsheet she had found in the woods on her way there four years ago), she came face-to-face with Princess Celestia.

"I thought you knew better than this." Was all she said. "Your friends down there are grieving over you. They think your dead."

"I may as well be..."

"I think you know Equestria would be better off if you were alive."

"How so?"

"You defeated Sunset Shimmer, remember?"

"Yeah, but I had help!"

"It was mostly you."

"Why are you here?"

"To tell you that you need to save Equestria once again."

"What's going on?"

"Rocky Stallion is back. He wants to conquer Equestria and be a fierce ruler, forcing all the ponies to bow before him and be his servants."

"So why don't you just stop him?"

"Because I don't have the power to fully control the Elements of Harmony. You _do _care about Equestria, don't you?"

"Yes, but -"

"No buts. Get out of this cave and go find your friends. And trust me - I'll know if you did it or not. I have eyes - " she looked all around. "_Everywhere._"

She left.

Twilight sighed. Had her friends really been grieving after they thought she was dead? After all she did? Nearly killed them? Made them miss the biggest moments in their little sisters' lives? I couldn't be possible.

_"THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE REUNITING WITH YOUR FRIENDS TO ME!" _Boomed Celestia's voice from somewhere.

"Okay, okay, I'm going..." she said, charging out of the cave. She ran as long as she dared, but then got tired and switched over to trotting very fast. She didn't want to be out in the Everfree Forest too long without the protection of her cave. Finally, after about an hour of walking, she saw lights. _Fluttershy's cottage! _She thought. But when she neared the light, she realized the chicken coop wasn't there. Neither were the bird houses. The cottage was even painted a different color! That could only mean one thing - somepony else lived there!

She walked down the pathway away from the cottage and towards Ponyville, and almost fainted. This looked nothing like the Ponyville she left behind. Animals ran amuck, half of the shops weren't there anymore, and there was nopony in sight. Usually most Ponyvillians liked to go on walks at midnight when they felt happy - could it be true? They really _do_ miss her? Sugarcube Corners had been turned into a building with all apartments, and there weren't any sounds that indicated a party was going on.

As quick as she could, she raced down to the Golden Oak Library. There was a light on, she could see - Spike's room. She walked up to the front door and knocked silently. Little footsteps walked up to the door and sung it open.

"Welcome to the Golden Oak Library," Spike droned. "I'm sorry, we're closed right now. Please come back in th - _TWILIGHT?!" _

Twilight put a hoof over his mouth, stepped inside, and closed the door behind them. "Be quiet! You'll wake up the whole of Ponyville!"

Spike threw himself onto Twilight's foreleg and hugged it. "Do you know how long we've been holding search parties for you?!" He sobbed. "We - we th - thought you were - "

"I know, Spike, I know..." she hugged him back. "You thought I was dead. Where in Equestria would you get an idea like that?"

"W - well, we c - couldn't find you, s - so..."

"I'm sorry." She told him. "I've let so many people down in the last four years. What happened to Ponyville while I've been gone?"

"W - well, the CMC and the rest of your f -friends went looking for you after you disappeared, and they couldn't find you. S - so they thought you were in Canterlot or some other city. They told everypony to k -keep an e - eye out for you. But after search p - parties for three long years, s - somepony said it was likely that y - you were dead somewhere in the Everfree Forest. That g - got everypony's hopes up, not you dying, but they had f - forgotten to look in the Everfree Forest. They set out, but on th - their quest, they found something that looked like a sh - shell of you -"

"Which was probably from the time that cocatrice turned me back from stone..."

"And th - they buried it, cause they thought it was a c - corpse... none of your friends has been the same s - since."

"What do you mean?"

"Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash moved to Cloudsdale, Applejack k - keeps overworking herself, P - Pinkie made herself a little house literally right next to your grave, because she got kicked out of her apartment -"

"Wait, Pinkie Pie got kicked out of her apartment?"

"Yeah, some important doofuses moved into Ponyville and they had to turn Sugarcube Corner into apartments. A - anyway, Rarity's designs have been shunned by everypony since two years ago, and I'm pretty sure none of them has talked to each other since that time, either. I think they just remind each other of y - you. Oh - and the CMC had a HUGE breakup. Since Apple Bollm had her cutie mark, they couldn't be a trio anymore. So since they had no ideas, they decided to just call it quits." Seeing the guilty look on Twilight's face, he quickly added, "But none of the CMC breaking up was your fault! Don't worry!"

"Yeah, actually, if I was here, I would have probably been able to sort it out..."

"Hey, why'd ya leave anyway, Twilight?"


End file.
